New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks to media following his speech at the 8th annual prescription drug abuse and heroin symposium, held by the office of the Indiana Attorney General at the Sheraton Hotel, Indianapolis, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar)Buy Photo

As chair of the national commission on the opioid crisis, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie faces a deadline for handing the president the commission’s final report in two days. But that didn’t stop Christie from traveling to Indiana Monday to address the attorney general’s eighth annual prescription drug symposium.

Christie declined to share specifics of the report in a press availability after his keynote speech. But in his speech he shared several thoughts on the opioid epidemic, which he repeated over and over kills 175 people a day.

"We have a 9/11 in this country every two and a half weeks based upon prescription opioids,” he said. “It’s unconscionable.”

One of the primary challenges that the United States faces, Christie said, is combatting the stigma associated with substance abuse. Four out of five heroin addicts start on prescription medications, many of them legally prescribed those drugs.

Americans consume 85 percent of the drugs in the world, while making up only 4 percent of the world’s population, Christie noted.

“It’s uncomfortable to acknowledge the fact that we are the most medicated, sedated country in the world,” he said.

During his wide-ranging speech that at times drew applause from the crowd of experts, Christie proposed a number of other actions to address the crisis, including these five recommendations:

Spend more money to solve it. Last week when the president declared a national public health emergency, he did not provide any source of funding to fight the epidemic.

The United States has not hesitated to put money towards guarding against terrorism, which has killed far fewer Americans in this country, Christie said.

“If 175 Americans were being killed on our soil each and every day by a terrorist organization, how much would we spend to make it stop?” he asked.

However, he added, in a press availability after the speech, that it was the job of Congress, not the president, to decide how much money to spend.

Advocates should fight the stigma. Noting that opioids have killed more Americans than AIDS, he said, that people touched by drugs are even more reluctant to come forward, afraid that people will blame them for their actions.

“There are no marches, because many people if they were going to march, they want to wear a mask,” he said.

His own mother was an addict, he said, addicted to nicotine. When she developed lung cancer, no one blamed her for her disease.

“On the flip side of that, I was never ashamed to say my mother died of lung cancer,” he said. “I wonder, would have I felt the same way if Mom was a heroin addict.”

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Marion County Superior Judge Bill Nelson and wife Kristy Nelson talk about losing son Bryan Fentz to opioids, their involvement in Drug-Free Marion County and their experience with stigma attached to prescription pill use and addiction.
Jenna Watson/IndyStar

Make drugs that reverse overdoses widely available. Overdoses now kill more people than guns and automobiles combined, he said. Every New Jersey police officer, firefighter, and emergency medical technician carries such medicines.

But some people argue against drugs, saying that they offer false complacency and provide only a temporary fix.

That may be true, Christie said, but they can also be life savers.

“No one can get in recovery from a coffin,” he said. “Every police officer in the United States should not leave for work every day without Narcan any more than they leave without their gun.”

Ease privacy laws. Christie shared the story of a Boston couple he met in New Hampshire during his unsuccessful presidential campaign. The couple told him that 10 days earlier their son, a Dartmouth student, had overdosed.

Not only did they have no idea he was using drugs, they learned after he died that a doctor had resuscitated successfully him on six other occasions. Because the young man was 21, doctors could not share his medical records without his permission.

“You don’t have the right to kill yourself in privacy,” Christie said, drawing applause from the crowd.

Do not legalize marijuana. While many states have taken this step, under the philosophy that marijuana is a safe substitute for opioids, Christie said that marijuana use among youth opens the door to opioid abuse.

People who use marijuana are two and a half times more likely to develop an opioid use disorder, he said. Legalizing marijuana for adults will make it more available to youth, Christie said, recalling his own experience getting adults to buy beer for him and his friends when he was 16.

“I will make it very clear to everyone in this room: Marijuana legalization will lead to more drug use, not less drug use. It will lead to more death, not less death,” he said.

Call IndyStar staff reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.